Alpha channel to stick with the assigned Material tag

[Berndimator]

Hi,

if there are multiple materials on one object and one of the material has an alpha channel - that alpha influences ALL materials.
It would help a lot to have this fixed. At the moment a workaround is the Blend Material, but the workflow is more complicated and not as efficient.

Thx,
B.

[shaio]

Hello Berndimator ,
we've added support for blending different materials with the texture tags, and it is available for download with our latest stable builds that can be downloaded from our nightlies server. I've added a few notes for this, so please take a look at this forum post for more information. Let me know if you're experiencing any issues.

[Makushimu]

Hello Berndimator ,
we've added support for blending different materials with the texture tags, and it is available for download with our latest stable builds that can be downloaded from our nightlies server. I've added a few notes for this, so please take a look at this forum post for more information. Let me know if you're experiencing any issues.

Still, it doesn't seem to work as it should.
The colors of the materials mix and this does not match the colors of the materials.

[deyan.hadzhiev]

Hi Makushimu, when the "Add material" option is used the materials are also "added" together, which produces the different result. Since Cinema 4D and V-Ray calculate this differently, this option will always produce different result.

[Makushimu]

OK I understand, but despite not selecting ADD, you still can't see the material that is underneath.
Viewport preview is also not correct.

[Makushimu]

This should work and be displayed in a viewport just like with normal c4d materials.
Even with many materials at once.

[deyan.hadzhiev]

We do not have precise control over what is shown in the viewport for both V-Ray and non V-Ray materials. There will always be difference between the rendered result and viewport and that can not be changed at this point.

[daniele_nicolaci]

Hi Deyan
Maybe I'm wrong, but in the V3.7 it worked fine (see attached), and as it was supposed to work. As per the new workflow, it is pretty unuseless as feature, we should add everytime the negative mask to the previous material (time consuming).
Is there any chance to get it back working as in the past?

Thanks

[Makushimu]

We do not have precise control over what is shown in the viewport for both V-Ray and non V-Ray materials. There will always be difference between the rendered result and viewport and that can not be changed at this point.

My point is that Shaio wrote that this functionality is implemented, but it isn't.
There may be differences between what's in the viewport and what's rendered, but with vray5 it didn't work at all. Aside from the fact that the material is displayed incorrectly in the viewport and the stacked materials are not displayed at all, the rendering of the stacked materials still doesn't work.

The question is, will it work like with native c4d material in the future?
I think this is a fairly common technique in Cinema 4d and it would be nice to be able use it with vray5 as well.

[shaio]

My point is that Shaio wrote that this functionality is implemented, but it isn't.

I'm not sure where I wrote this, but could you please share a link, so I can check if there isn't a misunderstanding, and we're not talking about different things? Are we discussing the Add Material functionality or viewport preview?

Thank you!

[Makushimu]

Hello Berndimator ,
we've added support for blending different materials with the texture tags, and it is available for download with our latest stable builds that can be downloaded from our nightlies server. I've added a few notes for this, so please take a look at this forum post for more information. Let me know if you're experiencing any issues.

By "blending", I understand the general functionality of being able to layer materials by stacking materials tags. Just like you can do with cinema material that has alpha channels. Thanks to this, you can see what is underneath. See the above example of a dotted and striped cube where five interpenetrating materials are used. Currently this does not work in vray 5 and is not possible to do.
For now, only the "add" button works in vray, and not the stacking itself.

[daniele_nicolaci]

Sorry, I was wrong in my previous post. I've just realized that the stacking function definitively works, but the workflow has now changed and instead of switching on the "add material" we have to switch off the texture "Tile".
the result is not properly visible in the viewport preview but is correctly rendered.

Shaio, maybe a short Video or a dedicated small docs about how to use it and its limits could avoid any misunderstanding as it happened to me?

[deyan.hadzhiev]

We will be changing a bit how the "Add Material" option works to be more intuitive and simply allow the materials to be blended based on the opacity of the material. However, the viewport preview will not be changed at this point.

[Berndimator]

Hello Berndimator ,
we've added support for blending different materials with the texture tags, and it is available for download with our latest stable builds that can be downloaded from our nightlies server. I've added a few notes for this, so please take a look at this forum post for more information. Let me know if you're experiencing any issues.

Thx shaio the nightly build works for me.
For the others here in the thread. As explained in the link above it is necessary to untick "Add Material" (to avoid an additive layer effect on the color of the materials) AND "Tile" in the material tag.

[Berndimator]

shaio there is one strange behavior though. If the object has just ONE material tag. I renders different when "Add Material" is either ticked or unticked. It shouldn't make a difference in this case. At the same time it raises the question, which setting produces the correct render than? My guess would be to have "Add Material" unticked/not activated.